Thursday, April 20, 2017

RUSHING THROUGH EXECUTIONS

Beginning on the day after Easter, the State of Arkansas
planned to execute eight people in ten days. Arkansas Plan.
As of Wednesday, April 19, four of the inmates have received stays of
execution. No one was executed Monday night, when Bruce Ward and Don Davis were
scheduled to be executed. Both were granted stays by the Arkansas Supreme
Court. The execution of Stacey Johnson, scheduled for April 20, was also stayed
by the Arkansas Supreme Court. The execution of Jason McGehee, scheduled for
April 27, was stayed by a federal court after the Arkansas Parole Board
recommended clemency for him. The other four executions are now subject to a
stay based on a lawsuit by the provider of one of the execution drugs, who says
the drugs were improperly sold to the state for executions: “The company said it would
suffer harm financially and to its reputation if the executions were carried
out.” McKesson Lawsuit

Meanwhile, a recent article sheds
light on an aspect of the execution ordeal which is not often examined. Dr.
Allen Ault, a former commissioner of the Georgia, Mississippi and Colorado
Departments of Corrections, has written a piece in Time Magazine explaining the
effect of executions on the people who must carry them out. This is an aspect of
the death penalty that doesn’t get enough attention, and Dr. Ault’s views are
worth considering. Dr. Ault presided over five executions. He was the man who
instructed the executioners to go forward. After five executions, he resigned.
The stress was too much. Interviewed in The Guardian, Dr. Ault expressed
concern for the mental health of the men and women who would have to kill so
many people so quickly. ““As the old saying goes,” he said, “you dig two
graves: one for the condemned, one for the avenger. That’s what will happen to
this execution team – many of them will figuratively have to dig their own
grave too.” The Guardian

Dr. Ault explained how he felt when
he conducted executions: “For me, unlike the ‘kill or be killed’ mindset of war
or other forms of self-defense, carrying out executions felt very much like
participating in premeditated and rehearsed murder. . . . It exacts severe
mental trauma—even when done under the auspices of state law. As I have written
before; I don’t remember their names, but I still see their faces in my
nightmares.” Allen Ault, “Former Warden: Arkansas Execution Rush is Dangerous
and Risky,” Time Magazine, March 28, 2017.

Dr. Ault is not alone. Two former
execution workers in South Carolina, Craig Baxley and Terry Bracey, sued the
state for pressuring them to assist in executions with little training or
counseling. The suit was dismissed; the trauma remains. As Mr. Bracey put it,
“Taking that plunger and pushing it in set me on a course I wasn’t prepared
for.” Frank Thompson, the former superintendent of the Oregon State
Penitentiary, told The Guardian, “There is absolutely no way to conduct a
well-run execution without causing at least one person to lose a little bit of
their humanity, or to start at least one person on the cumulative path to
post-traumatic stress.” This is just another example of how the death penalty
creates more victims.

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Why "Advocate for Mercy?"

Mercy and justice are not opposite. Justice is doing what is right, and mercy informs justice. As a criminal defense and post-conviction lawyer, the term "advocate for mercy" aptly describes what I do.

Elizabeth Unger Carlyle

I am a criminal defense lawyer with a special interest in post-conviction law. Having practiced law for almost forty years, I spend a lot of time in prison. I see my vocation as advocating for mercy and justice for my clients and I work to be a beacon of hope for them. I am licensed in Missouri, Mississippi and Texas. Through this blog, I share my work and witness.